Can't maintain a warm-up rally? Might not just be your opponent....

Interesting thing I've noted, I rallied with my coach the other night and we could of gone for hours. Then I rallied with my hitting partner last night and it was a different story. We are about the same level.

Difference is, my coach has the skill to get all of my shots back and place them nicely between the service and baseline for me to hit.

A lot of people around here complain about their opponent not being able to hit the ball back...

yes i know what you mean.
i have a different problem. i need more warm up, stable relaxed warm up, and my partners are just all over the place, can't return to the middle, starting to rally and do "points". i hate that, and i am prevented of warming my strokes properly.

I like to start off short within the service lines for toch and then move back. You are only limbering up. A lot of players seem unable to put the ball on target. I was warming up with someone last night who only seemed to be able to hit hero shots. He is able to hit it very hard being a big lad. I got fed up after 5 minutes, and asked him to return some balls for me to warm up, as it appeared I was just feeding him. To which the reply was an apology as he was trying to return them to me! The funny thing is everyone always says good shot when he launches them, thereby encouraging this behaviour. The reality is he hits as hard as he can and hopes for the best.

During warm-ups in practice in college our coach used to make us start off hitting with a partner inside the alleys. Really makes you focus. Stand slightly to the side (not right in the middle of the alley) so you can go forehand to forehand down the line, then move to the other side and go backand to backhand down the line. You don't have to hit every ball inside the doubles alley, but do your best and after a while you'll find it realy isn't as hard as it seems to keep 80-90% of those balls inside the alleys at a light rally pace.

Another warm-up drill for accuracy I did with my coach in juniors was to play 'hit the hash mark.' Pretty simple concept: rally until one of us hit the hash mark on the baseline.

The point of these is to give you a target in mind so you're not so casual about your warm up. The tennis court is too big to merely go about hitting keeping it within the sidelines. These types of drills give you visual guides to get you thinking about more precise targets.

OK, so the things I just mentioned are really intended more for tournament players and not recreational players, but I think they can still be adapted. Try the alley warm up, but make your goal to keep roughly 50% or better of your shots inside the alleys (also make sure there's an empty court next to you in case of errant shots). Also, you don't stop if you miss the alley, you still keep hitting.

Putting the ball right on the hashmark may be too tough for rec players so you can adapt that drill by putting a towel or a hula hoop down somewhere in no man's land and use that as your target (be careful not to trip on it!). Also maybe put a time limit on it. If no one hits the target in 3-4 minutes of hitting just end it and go onto your next drill or matchplay.

also, these are things you would obviously only do in practice and not something you can do in your ten minute warm up before a real match.

I'm trying my best to hit the ball directly to the person, preferably their fh side. I feel guilty when I send it away or mishit. Lately I notice that I also feel bad when I occasionally pop the ball with excessive topspin, ie it lands uncomfortably high for them.

9 out of 10 players I play with are 3.5 or below. While I'm comfortable with them, my level has become like theirs. I can't rally or play games with the few higher level guys around anymore

As you know, you are what you practice.
If you practice hitting soft balls to the forehand of your opponent, little spin and short NML depth, you WILL hit those shots when you're pressured against a good opponent, even if you really intended to hit the lines.
Gotta separate warmup from practice, practice from competitive hitting, and competitive hitting from actual match play.
Often, competitive hitting can have the hardest shots, most speed and spin, and going for the most.
But still, each is different from the other.

I played a guy who insisted on warming up with high looping top spin shots that kept landing on the baseline. At 3.5 it's a terrible way to warm up, so I just cut him short and said, "let's start, your not giving me anything I can hit anyway"

Of course HughJars. This is why people clamor to play with better players.. Better players not only rally better - you feel better about your tennis against them..

Even when they beat you its often with clean nice deep shots - hit to the open court. With pushers its just a a lot of randomly sprayed garbage that you shank into the net. Accordingly both players look like crap..

More incentive to get out of 3.5 level tennis.
And yes, some 4.5's do this, but not many. The ones who fake their warmups are usually the ones who really care about winning pusher level tennis.

Click to expand...

My mate who I play regularly warms up terribly. I mean, he literally struggles to hit one over the net, especially on his backhand (if you can call it that) and gives me nothing to get into a groove on. Then when we play, he's as consistent as high-grade oil...its quite frustrating. He's not faking in the warm-up, he just needs a competitive environment to play his best tennis. Quite amazing actually. Probably opposite to a lot of players out there who play worse in actual matches.

HA, try warming up to someone who goes for winners or unreturnables off of the feed.

When s/he hits it out and you bunts it back in an attempt to restart the rally, s/he goes for another winner or unreturnable.

Click to expand...

Just do as the pros would do when something like that happens. They would let that ball go and start another rally with another ball. I have never seen a pro trying to get an out of reach ball in the warm up

Just do as the pros would do when something like that happens. They would let that ball go and start another rally with another ball. I have never seen a pro trying to get an out of reach ball in the warm up

Click to expand...

Pros have ball kids/people to fetch them balls. We don't. It's mind-numbingly annoying to have to fetch all 3balls in less than 10 strokes.

Yeah, that's how this hitting partner hits. He literally goes for winners/unreturnables on feeds and floaty-rally-restarting balls.

Yes it tough. At the clubs mens night, warm up consists of a few balls over the net a couple serves from each side and the slice fest begins. It makes it tough for someone who needs to find their groove and get limbered up. Before I know it I am usually down 3 zip before I can find my serve and make some decent swings oh well that's probably why the better players avoid our club night which is too bad.

Too often during warm ups I hear players exclaim, "Nice shot!" after a player hits an unreachable shot.

Either the guy is being a jerk and trying to hit winners during warm up or, more likely, he can't control his shots. Either case is not good but it certainly doesn't warrant a "good shot!".

Click to expand...

I'm guilty of that. I'm actually being sarcastic much of the time when I say it (especially to the players who are trying to hit winners in a warmup rally), but nobody seems to have gotten the irony yet.

I play lots of different players, some of whom just haven't developed enough control yet to sustain a practice rally. These are the sorts of players who aren't necessarily trying to hit winners during the warmup rally, but whose stroke mechanics is just somewhat erratic, ie., not grooved yet. Typical of most 2.5s, and many, but not all, 3.0s to 3.25s.

If I'm playing with some guy who kills the ball on every warm up shot, I usually let it go and pick the balls up two to three times MAX and hope he gets the idea. Usually they do. But every once in a while they don't and when that happens I usually just pick up all the balls and pass all of it over to their side of the court at one go so they have to go pick up all the balls on their side. Sends the message across clearly.